No Toby's Allowed: Mandates & Strategies to Take HR Global

Can HR Departments remain relevant and useful in global organizations? Dave Ulrich proposed four areas of focus that HR Executives must change within their organizations, in order to focus on outcomes, rather than activities. Using fictional scenarios, this article builds a global context into Ulrich’s mandate for HR and proposes that a major focus of HR Departments should include increasing the HR Department’s cultural literacy through global travel opportunities, mandating participation in cross-functional teams and becoming the hub of effective transfers within the organization. This article argues that organizations simply do not need more “Toby Flenderson’s” (from The Office) in their HR Departments. They do need Global HR Representatives that can knowingly and productively contribute to whatever business the organization is in.